Lady Chrysanthemum
by ArashiGoddess
Summary: Abi was urged by her sister to enter a competition to further their family's reputation. The only problem is said competition takes part in the virtual reality world. It involves taking the place of a manga character; Sinbad, the High King of the Seven Seas. She thought he was only a man of the legends but in reality, he's so much more than that. Especially as a woman, instead.


_When did things start?_

That was Sinbad's first thought. Right in her arms, lay her beloved. He was _bleeding, _staining both his and her clothes red. It was so, _so much blood. _It was amazing how one wouldn't be able to connect that this red liquid and life are connected to one another until someone was losing a lot of it.

He was going to die. And Sinbad… she can't do anything but watch. His bloodied hand, held in her cheeks, and she didn't mind that the red was mixing with her tears.

She had never lost a loved one before. She was close to doing so when she was younger when her mother Esla almost succumbed to illness. But she did her best and tried her best to stay alive for her daughter and in turn, Sinbad tried her hardest to keep her alive.

What was she supposed to do? She didn't want him to die. She didn't want _anyone _to die. They didn't deserve it. _She-_

…

_Where did she go so __**wrong?**_

Amidst her thoughts and sobs, she faintly heard a laugh. It was so familiar that it made her blood boil. Once again, anger coursed through her veins and she glared at the man.

**Barbarrossa.**

Even if her Djinn Equip was falling apart, even if she could barely stand anymore, _even if she couldn't even speak her hate towards him, _all Sinbad wanted to do was to hurt him. Hurt him _just as bad or worse_ like he had done to her.

Her time was running out. She could hear the countdown in her head, maliciously reminding her that if she doesn't act fast, Sindria may as well be destroyed. She wouldn't allow that. She built this along side her love. She _promised_ to keep it safe.

And so, with heavy heart, Sinbad slowly let go of his now cold body and stood up.

Even if she must sacrifice her life to protect this place, she wouldn't hesitate to do so.

…

..

.

_15 minutes left._

_And until then, Abi gets to stay as Sinbad and let her hate consume her entire being._

* * *

"Tournament?"

Abi [アビ]***** paused, turning around from her chair to give her sister a confused look, her hands atop her Pharma book to keep it from turning due to her open window. "Why would I want to enter a tournament, Haruna? I have no interest in that. And besides, what is it for?"

The younger girl shrugged her shoulders, already knowing she was going to refuse. "It was arranged by Granma's friend from the company Virtua. She said to look for someone who would enter from our family, just to show support."

She deadpanned. "And what makes you think I will do it?"

"You have to. It's in a week."

"_A week?"_

"Virtua works pretty fast."

Abi closed her book and faced Haruna fully, her brown eyes meeting that of Haruna's blues. She worded slowly, "Why me? We have other cousins, they could do it and they probably would be more willing than I am. You know that."

The girl turned her head to the side slightly, her eyes not leaving her sister's. She was ready to argue. "They're away. Most of them are abroad right now. You _know _that."

The two of them stared at each other for a moment, neither one backing out. Abi remembered that they did leave Japan and Haruna was to leave soon for Osaka for her field trip. Aside from their younger brother and a few younger cousins, no one was fit to go aside from her.

She knew she should've taken that offer to study Guam. She just _knew._

She let out a deep breath, taking off her glasses to pinch the bridge of her nose. She could feel an incoming headache. It always did unnerve the older woman whenever that unemotional gaze of hers were directed at her. Even after all these years, she was still not used to it.

"I have an _exam._" She argued but Haruna was prepared for it.

"Granma could take care of that."

She exchanged an unamused glare with her sister's usual unemotional gaze… before she sighed. She rubbed the bridge of her nose exasperatedly.

_I can't believe I'm going to say this but…_

"Fine." She grumbled, wanting to rip out her hair. She was not going to be able to refuse, is she? "I'll play with your stupid games."

Haruna [ハルナ]***** was already at her phone, messaging whoever it is that wanted to know that she agreed to enter. It was either their grandmother or that friend from Virtua. It annoyed Abi that it seems there was no choice for her at her.

Watching her sister in contemplation, questions started to pop up in her head. Why her? Why even enter a stupid tournament? Heck, what is it even about? It felt like she was being sent in there blind. And at that point, if she was to participate, she might as well know about it… right? That's the logical thing to do.

"Haruna." She called out, and the girl hummed in response. Scratching her cheek, she forced the question out. "What is even the competition about? And what for?"

The other girl paused what she was doing, staring at her phone. It was something she recognized the other did often. She was _thinking. _As if weighing her options on whether it was a good idea to talk or not. Were they really not going to tell her?

Haruna took a deep breath before pocketing her phone and facing her sister once more.

"First off... it's about this old manga from before. They're remaking it as the first virtual reality game and to celebrate the prototype, they're holding a tournament with a select few individuals."

* * *

If there was one thing she hated the most, it was to be the center of attention. Sure, she's outgoing and very friendly but being put on the spot was something that always made her nervous. And as of that moment?

"_And for our last contestant, the fabled eldest grandchild of the Senritsu [__旋律__]__*****__ Family,"_

Almost as if on cue, the spotlight behind her shined and her shadow was cast on the curtain in front of her; the one that separated her from the waves and waves of crowd that showed up at the stadium. She could hear the silence from everyone as they waited with bated breath for her name to be announced.

She took a deep breath, steeling her nerves in preparation of facing the swarm of people. Until finally, her name was called.

"Usotomi _Abi!" _[嘘富 アビ]*****

_She was absolutely the center of attention._

The curtain opened, parting in the middle, and what greeted her was the loud cheering coming from all around her. She took a moment to gaze at her surroundings, at each people she could see with the aid of her glasses.

Seriously, for such a tournament, they didn't have to rent out a stadium. It was packed full of people and she could even see some were standing at the very top and back of the seats, almost crammed full but they didn't care.

God, it was the first time she was in front such a number of presences. And they were all here because of a remake of an old manga?

Suddenly, she could hear her sister's voice as she stepped down the small set of stairs and lined up side by side with her fellow contestants. She had heard their name as they were called previously but she was not bothered enough to remember which one was which and she didn't care.

* * *

"_Ten contestants from all over Japan are chosen for this, each hand-picked by Virtua's experts. All with no knowledge of the series, like you."_

_Abi listened, scanning the flyer in her hands. The details in it were vague, but even so, it seems as if Haruna knew way more than what it would give her, so she set it down and adjusted the frame of her glasses. "What's the point of not knowing then? Is this just some sort of experiment?"_

_Haruna's shoulders made the slightest movement; a shrug. "A little. But anyway, so that you'll know more, this would take place in the virtual reality world of Magi. Virtua invited Ohtaka Shinobu, the original mangaka of Magi, to input her fair share of knowledge and we set that as our starting point. They would've invited Ohtera Shifumi but she has long since passed away. Virtua was lucky enough to even have Lady Shinobu grace us with her presence."_

* * *

With the overwhelming noise buzzing in her ears, Abi turned her head to the right and up at the VIP section of the stadium. Amidst the men clothed in black suits surrounding the boxed off area, there seated in the long couch was her Grandma, Virtua's CEO, and another old woman. Unlike the other two, she was dressed modestly in something she would expect a normal old woman to wear; long sleeves in white, long skirt in beige, and a shawl in a faded purple.

Abi moved her attention away after catching her grandmother's eye, waving a hand at her slightly with a smile.

_Ohtaka Shinobu. The mangaka of the famed series Magi. She's still alive and even looked like she'd live for even longer._

Chuckling slightly to herself, she watched as the man in front of them stopped twirling and assumed a dramatic pose.

"Without further ado, let's start the tournament!"

With a flick of the anchor's wrist, the stage beneath them shook and multiple hatches opened. From that, machines of sorts rose from the ground. All the same and matched each contestant. Abi had to take in the sight of it. It looked like one of those machines a company awhile back used to explore a person's mind. The study was quite complicated, and she even had to go through it once as an assignment at her med school. Apparently, in order for them to understand human thoughts, memories, personalities, such and such, they would have to go inside their heads and see for themselves how these things work.

It was very popular when a paper was published. The media definitely had a field day on it.

Abi wondered whether Virtua had a hand in the study. Once she finishes this stupid tournament, she would have to check herself.

…or just ask her grandmother. That works too.

She sighed, and that caught the attention of a fellow contestant.

She had a dirty blonde hair, one side of it was longer than the other and came down to above her shoulders. She looked mature, maybe a bit older than her? Even so, she couldn't believe that a woman like her has agreed to participating. She looked like the type to be spending her leisure hours doing things much more productive.

"Not a fan, Miss Usotomi?" She had asked and the young woman was unsure of what to say. Nevertheless, the person looked nice and small talk never really hurt anyone.

"Oh uhh… yeah. My sister just forced me to go."

The other shook her head, exhaling a sigh like her. "I get you. But in my case, it was my niece that asked me to agree."

"Oh?"

"She was visiting when people from Virtua came and asked me if I would like to participate in this tournament. She heard Magi and that was all it took for her to beg me."

Abi gave a little smile. She remembered the time when Haruna still looked cute. She's so unemotional these days that it's not even considered cute. In fact, it wore off after the first few months.

_Can someone please bring back my cute little sister from before?_

One thing was making her think though. How can people like such an old manga? It was older than her, dammit! Was it really that phenomenal of a work? Lady Shinobu, you're too good at this game.

"Contestants! Please, allow us to escort you to your proper machines and get you set up!"

Their conversation was cut short at that and all ten of them nodded their heads at the MC. The first one to be escorted was Abi, having been placed at the further right. Accepting the hand that was held to her by one of the men, she paused and looked back at the woman she was previously talking to.

"I'm Usotomi Abi. I'm sorry but.. I wasn't sure which one you were."

The other waved her apology away. "It's alright. I'm Rokugyoku Kouka." [黄花 緑玉]*****

"Well then, nice to meet you Miss Rokugyoku." Abi smiled and Kouka looked stunned for a second. Though she didn't quite catch that.

"_And… good luck."_

* * *

"Lady Usotomi, please guide your legs into these."

"Keep your head back to avoid hitting the cover."

"Your hands, please."

Abi held out her hand, while doing what the others had instructed her to do. The machine was still considered a fairly new technology so she didn't want to do anything that may cause harm to herself or others. All she could do was follow Virtua's employees as they plugged the machine to her, one wire at a time, nervous as she was.

While she was like that, she could hear others doing the same to the other contestants. She was paying attention to them in hopes she would hear Rokugyoku but no luck. The people in the audience was loud enough as it is that it was a surprise as to how she even heard the other employees.

"Would this machine be drowning out the audience?" She asked, a little bit of her annoyance to the constant cheers showing on her face.

They bowed before answering, "Yes, Lady Usotomi."

She sighed in relief. "Good. Thank you." That was a response she wanted to hear. She didn't want to have to spend the entire time having multiple voices of thousands of people continuously pelting her ear drums. She'd rather be able to concentrate on this after all. She didn't want to win, but she would like to get the experience out of it, that's all.

Heaving a small sigh, the people around her stepped away, having finished their task of strapping her in.

"Ready, Lady Usotomi?"

When they had asked that, she closed her eyes. "Yes."

"Understood," was their response and they initiated the closing of the machine, encasing around her. Before it did so, she managed to hear one last words from the MC.

"_Let the Sinbad Game, begin!"_

_Sinbad game…_

She thought to herself as the machine activated. Words of code, temperature gauge, heart rate monitors and many others lit up at the same time. Then, from the fluid that was injected on her via the needle on her arm, she started to lose her consciousness. Her last thought was,

_What an awful name._

…

..

.

_From the corners of her mind, a countdown timer was heavily etched with numbers._

_175,199 hours : 59 minutes : 47 seconds_

_Time started to tick, and she was no longer Usotomi Abi but is Sinbad, the High King of the Seven Seas and King of the country Sindria. Destined to fall just as high as he had climbed up and lose the very people he had promised to protect._

* * *

A/N: _Hi! New story! The idea for this one came to me long ago but I only recently got tempted to write it because I feel like a different way of experiencing Magi through the eyes of someone from our world is just too good to pass up. Unlike The Chiming of Bells where the Rinko/Je'hel had to die to go to Magi, in this one, I'll be taking the Virtual Reality route._

_If you had noticed, the modern world in this one too is different from ours. They're much more technologically advanced and is the same world as Rinko/Je'hel's before she died. Ohtera Shifumi has also died of old age and has since finished the manga long ago while Ohtaka Shinobu is still around and kicking._

_This is gonna be a weird one, I'm gonna be honest. But through Virtua's VR technology, they were able to recreate the world of Magi during Sinbad's time. This way, through votes from the people watching, they can make events happen that otherwise wouldn't happen in the original series. Which is why Ohtaka Shinobu is there so that they can make the events as real as if they had actually happened._

_Also, the contestants' time inside the virtual world would be a lot slower than it is in real time._

***Usotomi Haruna (****嘘富 ハルナ****) – Usotomi means False Wealth and Haruna doesn't have any meaning hence the Katakana writing.**

***Senritsu (****旋律****) – this means Melody.**

***Usotomi Abi (****嘘富 アビ****) – Usotomi means False Wealth and Abi doesn't have any meaning in hence the Katakana writing.**

***Rokugyoku Kouka (****黄花 緑玉****) – Rokugyoku means Emerald and Kouka means Yellow Flower.**

_Anyway! Tell me what y'all think about this new story. I plan on continuing this and I want to know what's all of your thoughts about it are!_


End file.
